The CoP gathered a community of individuals working to promote integrated youth-centered and gender transformative programming through positive youth development. From 2015 - 2020, the Gender and PYD Community of Practice under YouthPower Learning has worked through collaboration, dialogue, and collective sharing and learning about: innovative and promising practices, what works, how to measure efforts, and how to support each other in applying what we learned.

Join the new CoP here.

WHY GENDER AND POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT?

Programs that support gender equality and work towards ending stigma, discrimination and violence are essential for young people to achieve their full potential and to grow into healthy, thriving, and leading members of their communities and countries. Gender transformative and gender-synchronized approaches bring a critical lens that intersects in powerful ways with positive youth development approaches. This community aims to identify and explore these key points of collaboration in order to support development practitioners who aim to empower adolescent girls, engage men and boys more effectively, seek to end gender-based violence, or work to close gender gaps through fostering systems that promote gender equality.

Accomplishments

Between 2015 and 2020, the Gender and PYD Community of Practice

Provided recommended entry points and guidelines for gender-transformative and positive youth development programs.
Curated gender-focused PYD resources and tools for members and on www.youthpower.org.
Supported the systematic review of PYD programs by ensuring a gender lens was applied in the analysis and review in order to assess how gender-related dynamics impacted PYD program outcomes.
Hosted working groups on gender and PYD topics including: the intersections of HIV and SGBV for adolescent girls, social inclusion in PYD programming, promoting sustainable gender transformative PYD programming, and developing a gendered learning agenda for PYD practitioners and researchers.
Co-hosted and hosted webinars with our members to promote emerging research findings, program and research methods, and learning on topics relevant to gender equality, youth engagement, and positive youth development.
Reviewed and awarded grants under contracts focused on gender-transformative positive youth development to youth-led organizations.

A young boy is looking at the camera as he sits in the classroom with other young boys. Photo by David Snyder for ICRW

Members

CoP membership included youth development practitioners dedicated to ensuring gender-sensitive, gender transformative, and gender-synchronized approaches are integrated into all aspects of positive youth development programs. Our 1000+ members come from civil society organizations, research institutions, private companies, and donors, and are individual advocates for gender transformative positive youth development from all over the world. We welcome any members interested in connecting their experiences with others working on gender and PYD efforts in different geographic regions and programming sectors, including but not limited to: workforce development; health; education; economic empowerment; democracy, human rights, and governance; and youth leadership.

Join the new CoPs here.

A young woman is showing something on a computer to women sitting on a carpet

The Gender and PYD Community's Founding Goals

From the outset, the Gender and PYD Community of Practice worked towards the following goals:

To promote gender and PYD integration across development programming through the YouthPower platform.
To affect positive changes in gender and age-related norms through gender transformative approaches and engaging men and boys in PYD programs.
To ensure PYD programs have the tools and knowledge to address and respond to gender-based violence among their beneficiary populations.
To close gender gaps among youth by fostering systems that promote gender equality.

YouthPower Learning CoP Resources:

Other Gender and PYD Resources:

Collectively Sharing and Learning: Promoting Gender-Intentional and PYD Integration Across Youth Development Programming
Early Evidence from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) Program
First, Do No Harm: Considerations for mitigating social harm risk in rolling out HIV index testing among AGYW
Gender Equity in Research and Practice: Engaging Adolescent Men and Boys for Sexual and Reproductive Health
Giving Adolescents a Voice: Age-Appropriate Methods that Work for Measuring Gender Norms Across Contexts
Kapungu, C., Jessee, C., Sebany, M., Juan, C., & Edmeades, J.E. (2018). Gender and Mental Health: An Opportunity to Achieve Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: YouthPower Learning, Making Cents International.
Ricker, C., Stangl, A., Sebany, M., Kapungu, C., Chard, E., & Jessee, C. (2019). Integrated Index Testing, Partner Notification, and Routine Enquiry for Intimate Partner Violence for Adolescent Girls and Young Women Living with HIV: A Technical and Programmatic Brief. Washington, DC: YouthPower Learning, Making Cents International.
What Do We Know? Evidence Gap Maps (EGM) Regarding Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) and Related Transferable Skills Programming in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

Other Resources:

Gupta, G.R. et al., (2019) Gender equality and gender norms: framing the opportunities for health., Lancet., 393 (10190), 2550-2562.
Heise, L. et al. (2019). Gender inequality and restrictive gender norms: framing the challenges to health, Lancet, 393(10189):2440-2454
Health Communication Capacity Collaborative. Gender Transformative Approaches, An HC3 Primer
Pulerwitz, J., Gottert, A., Betron, M.and Shattuck, D. on behalf of the Male Engagement Task Force, USAID Interagency Gender Working Group (2019). “Do’s and don’ts for engaging men & boys.” Washington, D.C.: IGWG.
United States Agency for International Development. (2017). Gender Integration Continuum User’s Guide User’s Guide.
United States Government (2016). United States Global Strategy to Empower Adolescent Girls. Mimeo. Washington, D.C.
United States Agency for International Development. (2012) Gender Equality and Female Empowerment.

Websites:

Former Co-Champions

Dr. Chisina Kapungu, Fellow, ICRW/ Director of Learning and Organizational Strengthening at WomenStrong International

Dr. Kapungu has nearly 20 years of experience as a clinical psychologist and community-based researcher with expertise in adolescent health, mental health, sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. The foundation of her clinical and research work has been to develop partnerships with researchers, program implementers, community-based organizations, and government institutions in order to identify and build on the assets and resources of communities to develop effective and sustainable health promotion programs. Chisina provides technical guidance on positive youth development for YouthPower Learning at ICRW. She also currently serves as the Director of Learning and Organizational Strengthening at WomenStrong International. In this role, she provides technical oversight on the development and implementation of Learning Labs focused on girls’ education and empowerment, women’s health, prevention of violence against women and girls, and economic opportunity.

Chelsea Ricker, Independent Consultant, www.chelseasaidso.org

Chelsea L. Ricker (she/her/hers) is a lifelong sexual and reproductive rights activist whose work focuses on amplifying and integrating the voices of women, young people, LGBTI+ groups, and local communities into programs, policy, and research spaces. Chelsea is an expert in access to and quality of sexual and reproductive health services, comprehensive sexuality education, sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response, and international human rights structures. In addition to her advocacy, Chelsea has developed games, learning, and capacity-strengthening tools and strategies for human rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights organizations including Amnesty International, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the International Rescue Committee, the International Women’s Health Coalition, Pathfinder International, and UNAIDS, among others.

Katie Green, MIA, independent consultant in international positive youth development

Katie Green is an international development professional with experience and commitment to expanding opportunities for young people, especially girls, to reach their fullest potential, transform their own lives and their communities. Her experience includes: providing on-going technical support to improve quality programming; staff development and training; as well as conducting assessment and evaluation for continuous improvement. Katie is an enthusiastic advocate for positive and youth-led development.

Diana Santillán, Senior Gender and Evaluation Specialist, formerly ICRW

Diana Santillán is a Senior Gender and Evaluation Specialist, with 25 years of experience in research, evaluation, training, and technical assistance to advance gender equality in international health and development. She has worked for various international organizations and academic institutions in diverse settings, including Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Previously, she was the Senior Sexual and Reproductive Health Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women, where she provided technical oversight for research studies.

Former Facilitator

Lindsey Woolf, YouthPower Learning Project Manager, Making Cents International

Lindsey Woolf, MSc, is an international development project manager and youth organizing specialist with experience leading and facilitating youth-led organizations, movements and campaigns, as well as developing youth leadership programming and trainings. Lindsey holds an MSc in Anthropology and Development Management from the London School of Economics.

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